A POPULAR Bendigo business is up for sale with more than three decades of family ownership coming to an end.
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The 140-year-old Sandhurst Road Milk Bar has been operated by a member of the McDonald family since the early 1990s.
Current owner Andrew McDonald is selling the milk bar - a local institution for generations of Bendigo residents - after owning it for the past 15 years.
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Prior to Andrew's tenure, his sister Heather Lyttleton ran it for a decade after his brother Mark purchased and ran the business for almost six years.
"My brother, my sister and myself have had it for the last 30 years after Mark bought it in 1992 or 1993," Andrew said.
"It's been here since 1882 I think. We have an old picture from the horse and cart days and it has a similar look back then to what it is now."
"My brother was on the front page of the Advertiser when he was redoing the facade to its original status."
Listed by Priority1 Property Bendigo, the site includes the milk bar's freehold and equipment, a potential residence at the rear of the shop and about 300 square-metres of land.
Andrew said his decision to move on felt natural.
"It's probably time someone else moved in," he said. "I have no other siblings that want to take it, so it's time to put it on the market and let the next lot move it to where it could go.
"My sister is hitting 80 now and my brother just retired - he's 65 - and I'm 60. I'm just at the stage where I had to make a decision and move on or sit around for another 10 years."
The loyalty and good nature of the customers he sees was what Andrew said he would remember most fondly.
"It's been great. Good people make it easier to run a business. The people that come here are just unique. It is a good customer base," he said.
"You do the right thing by customers and they will keep coming. I can't emphasise enough how good our customers are.
"Over the last 15 years there would (be about) 80 that I could count that have passed away but there is still a solid group of people. We cater for a lot of tradies and workers, that's always been the case."
Andrew said some of his customers couldn't believe he was preparing to move on.
"A lot read the listing in the paper when the agent put it in and some people looked at me thinking 'where are you going?'," he said.
"We'll just just see what happens. It's only fresh on the market - a business can take two months or two years to sell, so I don't want to look too far ahead."
Andrew said the next potential owners would be taking on a solid business with a good customer base.
"It's more food and takeaway type stuff now. Most people want to pull up grab something that's ready to go," he said.
"It's a good business to come into. It's solid and always has been, even before our family come into it.
"It must be a unique site where it is in the right spot and just works. You have to do the job and make sure it works, but it does.
"The fact is it is a good solid business. Whoever comes in here can have confidence knowing there is something to work with."
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